I know I hype up all my recipes but this is one of my all-time favourite vegan dishes I created. It turned out absolutely fantastic and I usually double the recipe so I can eat it several days in a row. I make this sticky tofu, or variations of it, about once a week and just never get tired of it.

It’s also a sentimental one for me because the inspiration behind this is the OG orange chicken from Panda Express I used to eat way too often during my year abroad in Iowa. Yes, Iowa. One of my core memories from my time there is driving to the local mall in Cedar Rapids after school to get a box of orange chicken and white rice with my host mom and host sister. This was 2008, I was sixteen and hanging out at the mall with my sister was one of the best things ❤️

I’m in my thirties now and, alarmingly, love to eat veggies as part of a meal (I also prefer my own couch or dinner table over a food court) so I usually make my orange tofu with a side of rice and spicy, charred broccoli. The recipe will be added to the blog soon, so in the meantime just add any vegetable you fancy. Or, if you don’t care for veggies, have it plain. It’s great!

Ingredients

For the tofu marinade

1 block extra firm tofu (250g - 300g)

1 tsp soya sauce

2.5 tbsp corn flour

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp white pepper (ground)

For the orange sauce

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1/4 cup (60ml) fresh orange juice

Zest of 1/2 orange (organic, unwaxed)

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp + 3/4 tsp soya sauce

1 tsp gochujang

25g - 35g (about 1.5 - 2 tbsp) bitter orange marmalade

1/4 tsp ginger powder

1/8 tsp white pepper (ground)

1 star anise pod

For the slurry

1 tbsp corn starch + 1 tbsp water

Additional ingredients

120g basmati rice

Sunflower oil for frying

Spring onions to garnish

Sesame seeds to garnish

Notes on ingredients

Method

Step 1 Start by draining the tofu and patting it dry with a clean kitchen towel. Tear it into bite-sized pieces and place them in a food container with a lid that seals well.

Step 2 Add the soya sauce, mix well and let it marinate for 5 - 10 minutes.

Step 3 In the meantime, mix up all your ingredients for the orange sauce. To avoid lumps, it’s best to start with the spices and then slowly add the liquids, marmalade and gochujang. Don’t worry about dissolving the marmalade at this stage, the sauce will come together nicely when warmed up later.

Step 4 Now, sprinkle 1 tbsp corn flour over the marinated tofu, seal the container and shake. Repeat this step with the remaining corn flour until the tofu pieces are evenly covered. Add more corn flour if the coating seems wet. Then add garlic powder and white pepper, close the container and shake again.

Step 5 It’s time for the first round of frying. Use a non-stick pan that accommodates the tofu easily and add 1.5 tbsp of sunflower oil. Turn the heat to medium-high. When the oil is at temperature, add the tofu and shuffle the pan around until the pieces are evenly covered in oil. Fry the tofu until golden, then remove it from the pan and keep it on the side for later.

Step 6 In a small bowl, make your corn flour slurry: mix 1 tbsp corn flour with 1 tbsp water and set aside.

Step 7 This is about when I start cooking my rice. For two portions, I usually make around 120g of basmati rice and cook it for 20 minutes. Stick to your preferred method or find my tried and tested method in the notes below.

Step 8 When you have about 20 minutes until your rice is finished, start heating 1 tbsp in your non-stick pan at medium heat. Once hot, add your tofu and continue frying the pieces until they’re nicely browned and crisp. Turn off the heat.

Step 9 Give your corn flour slurry a good stir and add it to the orange sauce. Mix well and start warming it up on medium heat while stirring constantly. Ideally, use a pan that’s wide and narrow. You will notice the mixture starting to thicken pretty quickly.

Step 10 Once the mixture starts bubbling, turn off the heat and carefully pour the thick sauce over the tofu. Careful: if the frying pan is still very hot, there might be some splattering. Make sure to start stirring the tofu straight away to calm things down.

Step 11 Depending on the temperature of your pan, it could take a minute or so for everything to settle. Once the pieces of tofu are evenly covered with marinade, you can turn the heat back to medium and let it thicken. It’s important to keep a close eye on your tofu at this stage: you want the sugar in the sauce to caramelise slightly, but you don’t want it to burn. So keep tossing and turning the tofu for another few minutes until all liquid has evaporated and the orange sauce is perfectly sticky. Remove the star anise pod.

Step 12 Your rice should be ready or close to ready by now. Plate everything up and enjoy!

Notes on Ingredients

Bitter Orange Marmalade

I like to use Bonne Maman Bitter Orange Marmalade for this recipe. It actually isn’t very bitter and could be more flavourful but I still think it works well here. I can’t comment on any other brands since this is the only one I’ve tried, but I would stay away from the cheaper brands — it will likely get more sugary and less flavourful.

If you’re in the UK, you’ll easily get your hands on good quality bitter orange marmalade but if all you can get is bland, overly sweet marmalade, I would suggest omitting it altogether — it might do more harm than good. You could replace the marmalade with some agave or maple syrup and try to get that orangey flavour from fresh orange zest or add a bit more orange juice. Be careful with sweeteners though, you don’t want it to be overly sweet.

Gochujang

Gochujang gives our sticky marinade some punch and ✨fruitiness✨ so do not skip! It adds a warm and wholesome spiciness that works really well with the star anise and is worth going to the shops for. If you don’t have gochujang or can’t find it at your local supermarket, you could replace it with sriracha sauce.

Orange Juice

I recommend using freshly pressed orange juice in this recipe for two reasons: it’s usually a lot more flavourful than bottled juice and you can use the zest of your fresh orange (as long as it’s unwaxed and organic) to add even more of that orange flavour.

Having said that, I have made this recipe with fresh mandarin juice and no zest before and that worked out just fine, too. I would always go for freshly squeezed juice over bottled, but my guess is bottled juice will work as well.

Tofu

I recommend extra firm tofu because it has more of a bite to it than regular firm tofu and will give you more of a meaty texture. My go-to extra firm block is The Tofoo Co Naked Organic Tofu. But if you can’t find extra firm tofu, don’t worry: you can make any firm tofu extra firm (or at least firm-er) by simply pressing it. The easiest way is to sandwich a block of tofu between two cutting boards and two clean kitchen towels to press out the liquid. Arrange the layers like this: cutting board at the bottom, then folded kitchen towel, then tofu block, then another folded kitchen towel, then another cutting board. Now, simply put two or three heavy books on top. Don’t make it too heavy though or you’ll squish the tofu. Give the tofu at least 45 minutes in the ‘press’.

Just make sure you get a net weight (after pressing) of around 250g to 300g of tofu for this recipe to work. If you use less it will still be delicious but it might turn out more saucy than sticky because of your sauce-to-tofu ratio.

How to Cook Rice like a Pro (like me ✌🏼)

The amount of rice indicated above plus the sticky orange tofu will feed two hungry people or three not so hungry people or a single person who likes leftovers.

However, if, for whatever reason, you want to make more or less rice, here’s a really easy calculation that will help you get to the perfect rice-to-water ratio. Trust me, I’m horrible at maths but my rice usually turns out great!

Measure the amount of rice in a cup measure or any drinking cup / mug you have on hand. To boil your rice, you’re going to need 1.5 times the water (in volume, not weight). For example, if you make 1 cup of rice, you need to cook it in 1.5 cups of water. If you make 2 cups of rice you’ll need 3 cups of water etc.

First, wash your rice until the water is clear. Add the washed rice with the right amount of water and a sprinkle of salt to a pot. On high heat and with the lid on, bring the water to a boil, give the rice a good stir and turn the heat down to the lowest setting. Cover the pot by placing a clean, folded kitchen towel between the pot and the lid, then set the timer to twenty minutes. Do not open the lid or even stir the rice during the cooking period! After twenty minutes, check the rice: if it’s dry to the touch and holes have started to form in it, the rice is ready. If it seems too wet, give it another 2 - 5 minutes.

Sticky Orange Tofu